“About two weeks ago my mother was stabbed on the corner of harvest and main. It’s the intersection just outside where most of the farmers work and live. We’ve always lived pretty close by, and my mother was on her way home late one night from shopping. She didn’t have much on her except a bag of groceries and the like, so some mugger must have gotten upset and decided to take it out on her.
“She was a beautiful woman. Kind and loving. I always wanted to be just like her when I got older. She took care of the crops hanging down the front of harvest most days, and other days she would work with fellow farmers getting done what needs getting done. The two of us would sit together in the early mornings and watch the sun...
“I’m sorry officer I’m rambling aren’t I. Let me restart. Two weeks ago, a stabbing brought my mother to the hospital. She was in pretty bad condition. Doctors said they didn’t think she would make it, then they told us a number of days she had left. As one of her dying requests, she was brought up to the AFTER facilities on the higher floors, and allowed to… Well what do you call it exactly? Pass? I don’t even rightly know if she’s dead.
“What’s the deal with this AFTER thing anyways. People so sure that there’s some higher calling in store for them think that they can just ditch their lives here and everything will be fine without them? And what even happens to them? Do they die? Are they taken by some great rapture up into the heavens? I don’t think so. I think my mother wasted her time and body.
“You see us farming folk spend a lot of time working with the remains of other dead people. There isn’t much fertilizer to be had in Jisang, Livestock were never really meant to live in towers. Instead we get ashes of dead folk, and what nutrients can be spared, and we make fertilizer out of it. So when a working farmer decides to make their body vanish forever without a trace, it ticks me off.
“I guess I’m being a little too hard. Maybe she just wanted a better life for herself, especially knowing that hers was coming to an end.
“Well, the point is, she went to these AFTER people and she disappeared. It’s hard to properly mourn someone when you don’t rightly know what happened to them. My father and I tried our best to move on but he and my mom were awfully close. After she died I think he blamed himself. It’s a little cliche, but when you’re the man of the house I think that’s the kind of thing you’d do.
“He was so torn up over her death, he stopped working all-together. In a short week we started getting notices and papers telling us that if he wasn’t going to work we were going to need to find somewhere else to live. These notices barely fazed my father. He was in another world, staying at home, drinking, and trying to forgive himself. I couldn’t help but yell at him, I wouldn’t be able to keep our home alone. And in a short week my father and I had gone from happy family to bitter rivals.
“Eventually, he got fed up with me. Or at least that’s how it seemed. One day he just got up, and walked straight to the AFTER offices, and signed up to be taken. Then I never saw him again. I didn’t even know where he went to until a few days ago when I got a letter in the mail from the AFTER people. They let me know that he signed up for it or whatever, and then they paid me for his life.
“Silly to think that a few hundred dollars would make up for his complete disappearance.
“So that just about brings you up to speed Officer. I’ve been living alone the past two weeks, working my ass off to make up for the empty house, and you have to believe me when I tell you that I’m using the space productively. Please, you don’t have to kick me out, I’m just as productive as any other family.”
“Please I’m begging you I know that I’m taking up space but I’m doing good work.”
“She was a beautiful woman. Kind and loving. I always wanted to be just like her when I got older. She took care of the crops hanging down the front of harvest most days, and other days she would work with fellow farmers getting done what needs getting done. The two of us would sit together in the early mornings and watch the sun...
“I’m sorry officer I’m rambling aren’t I. Let me restart. Two weeks ago, a stabbing brought my mother to the hospital. She was in pretty bad condition. Doctors said they didn’t think she would make it, then they told us a number of days she had left. As one of her dying requests, she was brought up to the AFTER facilities on the higher floors, and allowed to… Well what do you call it exactly? Pass? I don’t even rightly know if she’s dead.
“What’s the deal with this AFTER thing anyways. People so sure that there’s some higher calling in store for them think that they can just ditch their lives here and everything will be fine without them? And what even happens to them? Do they die? Are they taken by some great rapture up into the heavens? I don’t think so. I think my mother wasted her time and body.
“You see us farming folk spend a lot of time working with the remains of other dead people. There isn’t much fertilizer to be had in Jisang, Livestock were never really meant to live in towers. Instead we get ashes of dead folk, and what nutrients can be spared, and we make fertilizer out of it. So when a working farmer decides to make their body vanish forever without a trace, it ticks me off.
“I guess I’m being a little too hard. Maybe she just wanted a better life for herself, especially knowing that hers was coming to an end.
“Well, the point is, she went to these AFTER people and she disappeared. It’s hard to properly mourn someone when you don’t rightly know what happened to them. My father and I tried our best to move on but he and my mom were awfully close. After she died I think he blamed himself. It’s a little cliche, but when you’re the man of the house I think that’s the kind of thing you’d do.
“He was so torn up over her death, he stopped working all-together. In a short week we started getting notices and papers telling us that if he wasn’t going to work we were going to need to find somewhere else to live. These notices barely fazed my father. He was in another world, staying at home, drinking, and trying to forgive himself. I couldn’t help but yell at him, I wouldn’t be able to keep our home alone. And in a short week my father and I had gone from happy family to bitter rivals.
“Eventually, he got fed up with me. Or at least that’s how it seemed. One day he just got up, and walked straight to the AFTER offices, and signed up to be taken. Then I never saw him again. I didn’t even know where he went to until a few days ago when I got a letter in the mail from the AFTER people. They let me know that he signed up for it or whatever, and then they paid me for his life.
“Silly to think that a few hundred dollars would make up for his complete disappearance.
“So that just about brings you up to speed Officer. I’ve been living alone the past two weeks, working my ass off to make up for the empty house, and you have to believe me when I tell you that I’m using the space productively. Please, you don’t have to kick me out, I’m just as productive as any other family.”
“Please I’m begging you I know that I’m taking up space but I’m doing good work.”
“That house is so important to me.”
“Please.”
“You can’t do this to me.”
“Please.”